Odd Fellows Honor the Dead Flag

Odd Fellows Honor the Dead Flag with affixed stick. No Date  WW1 ?  Collection Jim Linderman

Hand Drawn Automobile Radiator Cover of Canvas with Hitler and Tojo World War Two Folk Art

Hand Drawn Automobile Radiator Cover of Canvas with Hitler and Tojo World War Two Folk Art. Patriotic instructions "Do you Drive 35?" is likely a reference to gas rationing during World War Two.  A shortage of gasoline was not the problem...it was rubber.  It was believed the only way to preserve tires was to limit the amount of driving Americans could do, so drivers were limited by the amount of gas they could purchase. Circa 1940.  Collection Jim Linderman

Sewer Tile Sewer Pipe Folk Art Man with a Cap Wall Pocket End of the Day Pottery Sculpture

Sewer Pipe tile Folk Art Man with a Cap Wall Pocket End of the Day Pottery sculpture. No date.  Collection Jim Linderman

The Moving Log Cabin of Vinal Early Trade Training Norwell, MA Vintage Snapshot

They are hanging out the windows to see the Vinal Regional Technical School "Early Trade Training" boys at work!  They built a MOVING LOG CABIN!  I'm not sure what is going on atop the float, but maybe they have a saw and are slitting more logs.  I don't see safety glasses.  I think that is taught before cutting these days.

Who would have thought a few "not on the college track" kids would invent the Tiny House Movement!  Or at least a moving duck blind.  I can see the Duck Dynasty guys pulling right up to the swimmin' hole and killing stuff in this. 

Vinal School is in Norwell, Massachusetts.  A tiny town which has produced notables such as Jeff Corwin the naturalist and Susan Tedeschi, the female blues musician who is lucky she gets to tour with Derek Trucks.   Derek is Duane Allman come back to life on slide, but then the super band here ain't bad either. 

Vintage Antique Gauze Linen Muslin Buckram Masks for Halloween or Theater

A fine group of novelty masks!

"Many of the masks for the early costumes were produced by U.S. Mask Company in Woodhaven, New York. Their earliest gauze masks, made of buckram, were sprayed with starch and steamed over a mold." according to the "Love to Know" website.  I am not so sure…as they can be found as coming from Czechoslovakia and other places (including the AMERICAN Mask Company, a company which originated in Europe.) They apparently moved to the United States around 1884.  They claimed to be the first mask manufacturing establishment in the United States of America.  Pages from the 1915 catalog are below. 
(Illustrated catalogue of papier mache, linen, wax, wire, gauze, show and curtain masks, noses, wigs, beards, etc. 1915 Findlay, Ohio)

Interestingly, they sold them in numerous categories including Dutchman, Devils, Dudes, Prominent men (such as presidents) and many more.  They appear to be a bit more dramatic than mine. I also find catalog pages as late as 1938 in cities other than Woodhaven.  They are probably still being made somewhere.

The material could be Buckram, which goes back to the Middle Ages.  It is a concoction of starch and strands of cotton.  You will find them called muslin, linen, gauze and likely more.  As with so many things, they look better beat-up after long use than pristine.  The ones above likely date to the late 1930s to the 1940s.

Thanks and a tip "o" the mask to BOXLOT on Facebook.

Beatnik Girls Go CRAZY

J

Print Journalism reveals the Beatnik Girls!  1967  There was only one real beatnik...Herbert Huncke. 

Lloyd Plays the Guitar Vernacular Photograph circa 1929

Lloyd Aspling of Minnesota playing his guitar circa 1929 Vintage Snapshot Collection Jim Linderman

Monumental Folk Art Sculpture Native American Bust Vintage Carving

Monumental Folk Art Sculpture Native American Vintage Carving Michigan Origin?
collection Jim Linderman

Antique Folk Art Watercolor Painting 19th Century Rubber Stamp Toy with Paint Embellishment on Ledger Paper

Antique Folk Art Watercolor Painting 19th Century Rubber Stamp Toy with Paint Embellishment. Two Sided (both shown) Collection Jim Linderman
You may also like the book (and ebook) Eccentric Folk Art Drawings of the 19th and 20th Centuries HERE 

Sewer Pipe Folk Art Bust of a Man End of Day Sculpture circa 1900 - 1920

Sewer Pipe Folk Art Bust of a Man End of Day Sculpture circa 1900 - 1920
Collection Jim Linderman

19th century Folk Art Hearts on a String paper Momento Love Whimsy

19th century Folk Art Hearts on a String paper Momento Love Whimsy Scrap paper, glue, string. Collection Jim Linderman

W. C. Rice Cross Environment Outsider Art Environment photograph by Jim Linderman

W. C. Rice Cross Environment Outsider Art Environment photograph by Jim Linderman 

See also the book American Folk Art in Place In Situ available as paperback or instant pdf download.

Love during Wartime Anonymous Vernacular Photograph circa 1940

Love during Wartime Anonymous Vernacular Photograph circa 1940  
Collection Jim Linderman

Annual Daytime Visit to the Carnival photographs by Jim Linderman

Annual Daytime Visit to the Carnival photographs by Jim Linderman

Outsider Art and Art Brut? It's a Piece of CAKE Paul K. Schimmack Bakes and Decorates an Astrology Chart

As much as I hate to start a new trend in "outsider art" I present here what was likely the first CAKE made with obsessive scribbles.  The medium?  SUGAR.  So there you go…a visionary piece of cake!  

There is an art to making cakes (and Schimmack was good at it) but when was the last time you saw some Art Brut applied with a frosting bag?  Among the proclamations made of sugary goo is that a trip to Neptune at 60 miles an hour will take over 20,000 years, so eat a big lunch before you go.  The artist/baker also indicates the weight of the moon.

Paul K. Schimmack was a bread and cake maker by trade (he was named Secretary of the Washington Wholesale and Retail Bakers Association in 1910)  As you can see here, his shop "The Lion Bakery" was capable of "40 buns in one minute!"   The building no longer stands. A house was placed there in 1922. Still, if one can say "he is better known" for a guy not known at all…it was his astrology art for which he is best not remembered today.  It is fair to speculate the great share of his work was eaten, but this recent discovery of a second obsessive diagram produced over 100 years ago is a good time to explore what is in the historical record.  This one has missed being included in the record as it was consumed after the picture was taken.

Astrology, of course, is the most intricate and detailed bogus system in the world!  Wiki calls it a pseudoscience, which means not science at all.  It is an early scam and continues to be.  I rank it just ahead of "magnet therapy" and Phrenology…the science of bumps on the head. 

Paul K. Schimmack's work "The Weather Shark Predictor" of paint on tin is now in the Balsley collection and it has appeared in shows, in a 1997 issue of Folk Art Magazine and in at least one catalog.  It is something of a masterpiece.  The artist seemingly registered a print of the piece in 1913 as "a work of art" titled Farmers Morning Glory Chart with the US Copyright Office.  It was published by the Schlesinger Company.  I believe "work of art" means a postcard, as the company was also responsible for the once common"Indian with headdress" postcards, though they did also publish lithographs for wall display. No publisher is indicated on the postcard here of his cake concoction, but it dates to around the same time.

Folk Art Magazine Spring 1997

A more typical image from Schlesinger Brothers Publishers

The Daily Republican (Monongahela, PA) of March 31, 1931 gave Mr. Schimmack a nice feature and asked him for a few predictions. "Inch downpour of rain during May followed by a rainy June. July, August, and September will be moderately dry. During November and October the rainfall will be medium and a general cyclone will strike the eastern states, causing shipwrecks and endangering tall buildings. Schimmack forecasts a general peace-making among all nations with the end of the year 1931.  Several years earlier, the paper had gone to Shimmack for his prediction on the Dempsey - Tunney fight!  Dempsey will enter the sign "with the support of the moon" while Tunney has Mercury behind him. 

In 1927, the Lincoln Star (Nebraska) filled lots of space with his predictions.  They called him a "weather shark" and astrologer.  The numerous, if mundane "crop reports" ran for several inches of copy.  Most notable was a "A big flood In California" and "The lion will show his teeth the first part of March, but that month and April will be relatively springlike."

Schimmack was also apparently the "go-to" guy for the Pittsburgh Press.  They called on his expertise in the January 26, 1932 issue.  "The change In weather will start to be noticeable today or tomorrow, however. Prom then on, there will be blizzards, sleet, snow, rain and ice. Eastern States will be paralyzed. "Coldest days will be Jan. 27, 28, 29, 30 and 31; Feb. 1, 3, 5, 6, 19, 22, 23. 24, 25, 27; March 2, 13. 18, 29, 31; and April 6, 7, 9 and 17." The Washington seer also predicted heavy snows in Pittsburgh and New York Feb. 22, 23 and 24. The groundhog will see his shadow; rivers will be at flood stage about the end of March and this district will experience a "white" Easter Sunday, he said."

He was referred to as the "astrological seer of Washington Pa." and that he had been "observing and charting planets for nearly 50 years…he's delved into histories of floods, cold spells and droughts for as far back as 1832, noting positions of planets for each."  Whew. 


The Spring 1997 issue of Folk Art magazine illustrated Mr. Schimmack's "Weather Shark Astrological Chart" along with a notice of an exhibition at the American Visionary Art Museum.   The piece is in the collection of John and Diane Balsley.  It also appears in the catalog of the exhibition.  A large color image of the piece is available HERE from the Ricco - Maresca Gallery. 

"Illustrative Astronomy" by Paul K. Schimmack  Photo Postcard 1910 Collection Jim Linderman